'British extremists use Syria as training ground before returning home'

British Home Secretary Theresa May has warned that extremists “of a Jihadi mindset” are using the Syrian civil war “as a nursery” before returning to Britain as trained terrorists.

“What we have seen for some time now, is that a number of
British people traveling out to Somalia, we’re now seeing people
travel out to Syria,” May said on BBC 1’s Andrew Marr Show on
Sunday.

She said they are receiving live training in the Syrian civil war
and then returning home to Britain. May added that many of them
are already considered to be possible terrorists by UK security
services.

While such members of the Syrian opposition have previously been
called “foreign fighters,” May said she viewed them as
“potential terrorists, some of whom will be of a jihadi
mindset.”

May’s comments come just days after Syrian Foreign Minister Walid
Muallem told the UN General Assembly that “terrorists from
more than 83 countries” are operating in Syria, killing
Syrian soldiers and civilians.

In March, the British Home Office’s annual report titled ‘The
United Kingdom’s Strategy for Countering Terrorism’ highlighted a
similar threat.

“There are now hundreds of foreign fighters from Europe in
Syria. And when UK residents return here there is risk that they
may carry out attacks using the skills that they have developed
overseas,” the report said.

As the civil war continues in Syria – more than two years after
it first began - the Home Office still does not believe the
country is safe from ‘home-comers.’

In August, British Prime Minster David Cameron voiced his will to
join a US-led strike on the Arab country to punish President
Bashar Assad for the government’s alleged use of chemical weapons
outside Damascus, which took hundreds of lives. But the
initiative was lost in the British Parliament, which opted to
give more time for a political solution to be found.

This finally took shape in UN Security Council Resolution 2118
which was passed unanimously and calls for the scheduled
destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons, and for chemical weapons
experts to be given unfettered access.

On Sunday, a team from the Organization for the Prohibition of
Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was reported to have begun the lengthy
and difficult task of destroying Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile.